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Royal Photo Company collection

Collection : Royal Photo Company collection
Date/Extent : 1937-1973, 30,000 items (see also Stern Bramson exhibition photographs)
Description : The Royal Photo Company was founded in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1903 by Louis Bramson and operated as a commercial photography studio until 1972. Stern Bramson, son of the founder, made the bulk of the negatives between 1939 and 1972. The studio or its subsequent owner discarded all earlier materials. Prints by the studio are found in several other collections at the Photographic Archives, including Cirkut camera panoramas shot during World War II when the studio moved to Camp Taylor, a U.S. Army training base in suburban Louisville. The collection includes studio logbooks, an oral history interview with Stern Bramson, and over 25,000 black and white negatives. The negatives are a valuable source of information about commerce, industry, and major construction during this important period. In addition, there are significant groups of photographs showing workers, family groups, and minorities in Louisville. See digital collection [The negatives are being scanned in chronological order, and the digital collection will be updated in phases as groups of scans are cataloged and completed.]: Repository : Photographic Archives